Languages in Syria

Syria officially known as the Syrian Arab Republic is a nation located in Western Asia. The country borders the Mediterranean Sea and Lebanon to the west. It borders Turkey to the north, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east and Israel to the southwest.

The country’s official language is Arabic and it has a number of variants depending on the area it is used. There are about 17 listed dialects in the country and these include Kurdish, Mesopotamian Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Assyrian, Levantine Arabic, Western Neo-Aramaic, Najdi Arabic, Standard Arabic, Turoyo, Domari, Lomavren, and classic Arabic. Some of these languages will be discussed in brief below.

Arabic Language

Ottoman built school in SyriaThe Syrian Arabic language is widely used by the locals of Syria. About 90% of the country’s population speaks this Arabic language and it spread in the country in the 17th century when the country was occupied by Muslims. The language is written from right to left. The Arabic numbers or Hindi Numerals are, however, written from left to right and the units are written on the far right.

As mentioned earlier on, there are a number of variations of the Arabic languages used in Syria. Some of these variations are as follows.

Mesopotamian Arabic

This language is a continuum of equally comprehensible Arabic variations indigenous to the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq and also extends to Iran, southeast Turkey, and Syria. This language is used by Iraqi diaspora societies.

Mesopotamian has two main variations. A difference can be identified between Qeltu Mesopotamian Arabic and Gelet Mesopotamian Arabic. Both names have been derived from the word “I said”.

The Gelet variation is made up of a Tigris language group and the widely known form is Baghdadi Arabic. It also consists a Euphrates language group referred to as Furati. The Gelet variation is used in the Khuzestan Province in Iran.

The Qeltu cluster is made up of the north Tigris language groups referred to as North Mesopotamian Arabic, and also the Christian and Jewish sectarian languages such as Baghdad Jewish Arabic. Both of these variations are used in Syria.

Levantine Arabic

Syrian childrenThis language is a wide tongue of Arabic spoken not only in Syria but in the entire Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip. It is thought to be one of the five main variations of Arabic. Levantine Arabic is used mostly for day to day spoken use. It belongs to the Eastern Arabic dialect family referred to as Mashriqi Arabic which also consists the peninsular Arabic and the Mesopotamian Arabic.

Classical Arabic

Classical Arabic also referred to as Quranic Arabic or Mudari Arabic is the type of Arabic language used in written texts from the periods of Umayyad and Abbasid. This form is founded on the ancient languages of Arab communities. This is the language use in the Quran and most people in the country study it so that they can read the Quran in its original dialect. Most Muslims in Syria and across the world, therefore, consider classical Arabic to be a sacred language.

Modern Standard Arabic

The Modern Standard Arabic language is the main language used in the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the Middle East and is also among the six formal languages of the United Nations. In Syria, this variation is used in education and the majority of the printed material such as newspapers, books, official documents, magazines, and reading elementary books for young children. It is, however, important to note that this variation of the Arabic language is not indigenous to anyone and most people in Syria speak variations of the Levantine Arabic particularly South Syrian Arabic which is used in the towns of Hama, Damascus, Tartous, and Homs. North Syrian Arabic is used in the Aleppo region.

Kurdish Language

Kurdish language is found in the Northwestern Iranian group of the Indo-European family and is spoken by the Kurds located in Western Asia. It has three main language groups namely Southern Kurdish (Pehlewani), Central Kurdish (Sorani), and Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji).

In the Kurdish areas of Syria, most of the people speak Kurdish. These make up about 6% of the country’s population.

Aramaic Language

The Aramaic language is a cluster of dialects that belong to the Semitic group. It is specifically found in the Northwest Semitic sub-family which consists of other Canaanite dialects such as Phoenician and Hebrew. The Aramaic writing has been adopted from other languages and its lineage has been traced to Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew alphabets.

Western Neo-Aramaic Language

Citadelle d'AlepThis is the only living dialect among the Western Aramaic dialects and was spoken across the Orotes River Valley and in the Anti-Lebanon mountains during the 6th century. This language is presently used in three villages which include Bakh'a, Ma'loula, and Jubb'adin. Among these three the Bakh'a village seems to be more conservative. The dialect has also not been influenced a lot by Arabic compared to the other two. It has also retained a few words that are outdated in the other languages. The Jubb'adin language has changed a lot as it is influenced a lot by Arabic and its phonology is quite advanced. The Ma'loula language is somewhere in between the two and is close to the Jubb'adin dialect.

This language is experiencing a revival in Jish. The continuation of these dialects in this Arabic country is partially due to the relative segregation of the villages and their tightly knit Christian societies.

These three dialects of the Western Neo-Aramaic language are facing serious endangerment as living dialects. Like any other village society in the 21st century, young people are moving into the big towns like Aleppo and Damascus to look for better jobs. This has forced them to move into mono-lingual Arabic-speaking surroundings and are, therefore, not able to actively maintain the use of the Western Neo-Aramaic language. All in all, the government of Syria provides the support needed to teach this language.

Armenian Language

This language is an independent group of the Indo-European dialect family and is spoken by the people of Armenia. It is the formal language used in the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. This language was historically spoken in the Armenian Highlands and is currently used in the Armenian diaspora including Syria.

Assyrian Language

This language is spoken by the Assyrian people who are also referred to as Arameans, Syriacs, and Chaldeans. These people are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East. The majority of the Assyrian people speak a Semitic Neo-Aramaic dialect whose subgroups include Central, Northeastern, and Western Neo-Aramaic.

The common form of Assyrian language used presently is the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic dialect which is often classified as a Neo-Aramaic language. The language uses Syriac script which is derived from the medieval Aramaic script. There is a substantial amount of joint simplicity between Assyrian Neo-Aramaic language and other dialects such as Seyana, Chaldean, Bohtan Neo-Aramaic, and Lishana Deni and they call be classified as languages of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic rather than different dialects.

The Assyrian Neo- Aramaic language group also consists of some Jewish Aramaic dialects such as Lishana Deni, Lishán Didán, and Lishanid Noshan. These dialects are used by Assyrian Jews in Syria.

Assyrians also speak more than one languages of the country they reside in. This is because they have to learn the language or languages of their adoptive country. Most words in the Assyrian vocabulary are also loaned from the language of their adoptive country.

Domari Language

This is an Indo-Aryan dialect and is spoken by older people from the Dom community in North Africa and the Middle East. Domari language is spoken in regions such as Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria.

Domari language is also referred to as Mehtar, Luti, Tsigene, or Middle Eastern Romani. Domari language lacks a written form. It is, therefore, written using the Arabic script in the Arabic peninsula. The language has also borrowed a lot of words from the Persian and Arabic languages.

The most common variation of the Domari language is the Palestinian Domari also known as “Syrian Gypsy”. The language is becoming endangered as fewer people are speaking this dialect.

Lomavren Language

This is a mixed dialect of the Lom people from Armenia. It is spoken by a small number of people especially in Armenia and also in Syria, Russia and Azerbaijan. This language is made up mostly of Armenian grammar and articulation with a vocabulary derived from the Indic language. The Lomavren language is, however, becoming extinct.

Kabardian Language

The Kabardian language also referred to as East Circassian or Kabardino-Cherkess is a Northwest Caucasian dialect linked to the Adyghe dialect. It is mostly spoken in regions of the North Caucasus republics of Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria, and in Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. This language has two main dialects: Besleney and Kabardian.

French and English dialects are also spoken by a few Syrians in the country particularly those in the business field and a few elite and learned people who can pay for education learn and speak these dialects.

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